Dicks often played shows with fellow pioneering Texas hardcore bands MDC, The Offenders and The Big Boys. Their full-length debut was the split album with The Big Boys, titled Live at Raul's Club (1980). Dicks were among the first punk bands to address issues of homophobia and sexual identity, as in such songs as Saturday Night at the Bookstore and Off-Duty Sailor.
In 1983, Floyd left Texas for San Francisco along with Debbie Gordon, the band's manager, who was now considered a member of the band (but did not play an instrument). Floyd and Gordon, along with new members Tim Carroll (guitar), Sebastian Fuchs (bass/vocals) and Lynn Perko (formerly of all-women band The Wrecks; drums), formed a second version of Dicks. The debut studio album, Kill From The Heart (1983) on 'SST Records' who would later be famed for their releases of many famous grunge era bands, followed. These People (1985), on another up-and-coming famous label 'Alternative Tentacles', was next. After these releases, the group disbanded again in 1986, although occasional one-off reunion shows featuring the Austin lineup occurred through the 1980s and 1990s.
During their downtime, the band remained influential in punk and underground circuits. Butthole Surfers ended their 1984 album Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac with the cowpunk anthem Gary Floyd in tribute to the Dicks' bandleader. Dicks saw a resurgence in popularity during the rise of grunge when Seattle act Mudhoney released a cover of Dicks' Hate The Police on 'Sub Pop Records'. Soon after, The Jesus Lizard (three fourths of whom were also from Austin) released their cover version of Dicks' Wheelchair Epidemic.
Gary Floyd later started Sister Double Happiness in San Francisco in 1986, after that he formed The Gary Floyd Band; primarily playing in Europe with an overview of this material to eventually record Backdoor Preacher Man. Toward the late 1990s, he played in Black Kali Ma, who released an album on 'Alternative Tentacles' then formed the band the Buddha Brothers, while Parrott and Deason went on to play in the Austin neo-bluegrass band Shootin' Pains and Trouser Trout, while Parrott and Taylor also played in Pretty Mouth. Perko went on to join Imperial Teen.
In 2004, Dicks began playing regular reunion concerts locally in Austin and elsewhere. The lineup for the shows consisted of the original Dicks, with the exception of Taylor, who died in 1997; his role filled by three other Austin guitarists: Mark Kenyon, Brian McGee, Davy Jones (R.I.P. 2015). At the 2009 Austin Music Awards show, The Jesus Lizard singer David Yow joined the band onstage for Wheelchair Epidemic. At the same show, Dicks were inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame.
A documentary film, The Dicks from Texas, was released in 2015 about the Dicks and the Austin, Texas punk scene in general along with a tribute album, The Dicks From Texas and Friends, with 27 bands covering 28 Dicks songs.
The Dicks announced that their final show would be October 30, 2016, at Grizzly Hall in Austin, Texas; however, due to popular demand, a second show was added the day after.
